Security and Encryption

Sharon Chan

In the digital era, where most people would have performed transactions of any kind across the Internet, security is the upmost issue on most of their minds. Transactions that involved money across the Internet would usually entail some sort of security feature from the website. However, one’s computer resembles one’s house, where security is crucial. For one to safeguard itself in this rapidly advancing technological era, one’s computer must have some sort of security feature. Privacy is another concern that needs to be noted. Encryption is an incredibly powerful tool that allows one to enjoy privacy in cyberspace[1].

Both the security and encryption issues would affect anyone who has a computer connected to the Internet. This is because intruders that hack into one’s computer system usually do it when one is connected to the internet. Their only other option is to get into your house to get on your computer. I would expect most people would prefer to be hacked into over the internet! In the case of a digital intrusion not only would vital information will be lost, your computer system could also malfunction.

There is a lot of debate going on about the encryption issue. As encrypting a message is to ensure privacy, it would also hinder any extraction of vital information that could be crucial in a law enforcement investigation. However, everyone values privacy, it would certainly be damaging if any government decides that encryption is an illegal act. The current issue is that whether or not, a program has an encryption feature , should the government be allowed to decodeinformation when they please? Then again, this would defeat the main purpose of encryption since its primary objective is to ensure the privacy of the user [2].

There is a need to continue the debate on whether the code of the encryption should be released to any government body. However, in my opinion, any release of the code to anyone other than the persons you allow, is an intrusion to one’s privacy. The main issue in releasing one’s code to any unwarranted body is certainly uncalled for, unless the person’s information is vital for survival for another person’s life. Hence, this issue still needs to be continue debated upon and until there is a satisfactory solution offered, one is still allowed to encrypt its messages and not release its codes to anyone.

Reference:

1. Engelfriet, A.G. (1997). Anonymity and privacy on the Internet.

2. Froomkin, D. (1998). Deciphering Encryption.